


Tales of Lethbridge-Stewart: The Rainbow Man

by Pearlislove



Series: Kate Stewart Appreciation Week 2017 [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gap Filler, Gen, Kate Stewart Appreciation Week, Pre-Canon, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 21:50:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12690870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: Kate's first day at UNIT





	Tales of Lethbridge-Stewart: The Rainbow Man

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Kate Stewart Appreciation Week (KSAW) Day 1 - When you first began to love Kate Stewart
> 
> 12th of November 2017
> 
> Prompt: Kate's first day at UNIT 
> 
> Bonus: Rainbow

12th november   
  
When you first began to love kate - kate's first day at UNIT - rainbow

  
  
"Ah, um, uh, Kate? Stewart? Kate Stewart!!!"   
  


Hearing her name being called, Kate stopped to look for its source. As busy stream if people moved around her, the limited space turning into a sea of moving bodies that surround and operated around the sole unmoving person.   
  
"Over here!" A teenage girl, possibly not more than fifteen or Sixteen, was waving her hands frantically in the air. Due to all the people moving around in the lobby, it was impossible to know if the girl was trying to attract Kate’s attention specifically, but it seemed as good of a guess as anything.   
  
Quickly going back the way she came, Kate felt a bit puzzled as she came closer to the girl. It wasn't often you’d see teenager at UNIT, as it was a top secret military base, and Kate wondered how the girl had ended up there. Still, Kate stemmed her curiosity, deciding that she had no right to go snooping in it.

  
"You called for me?" Kate said politely, smiling at the small girl as she came to a halt in front of her.   
  
The girl nodded fervently, big glasses almost falling off her face a she moved her head. "Yes. You're, you're Kate Stewart. I'm Petronella. Osgood. Petronella Osgood. I'm an intern and I'm supposed to show you the way to the debriefing. They're waiting." She smiled, showing that she had braces as well, and Kate nodded slowly. The last name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t tell where she’d heard it before.   
  
"Alright then. Lead the way, Miss Osgood." Kate gestured in front of her, laughing as the girl actually stepped out in front of her and started walking. She reminded Kate a lot of her own son, and for some reason it just felt quite naturally to step in behind her, walking just one step away from the heel of the girl’s blue sneaker.   
  
Instead of leading her to the elevators,  Osgood surprised Kate by taking a right turn down an empty, dimly lit corridor. The dusty concrete walls felt a lot less inviting than the bustling lobby, and as the noise slowly died out in the distance, Kate moved up to walk beside Osgood instead.   
  
"So, how come they let High School students do their internship here?" Kate asked. She had told herself she wouldn’t ask, but she was curious and desperately in need of something to say in the sudden silence.   
  
"I'm actually in University. I'm smart. Not that you're not, but, ah, I'm just...smart. Smarter. The Smartest." The girl looked mildly embarrassed, fishing an inhalator out of her pocket and taking a deep breath of the medication. "I'm sorry if this corridor is a bit unpleasant, by the way. I don't like it either, but a guest has showed up for the briefing and...well, he chose where he wanted it to be, and no one could fight him." Osgood smiled apologetically, frowning a little.   
  
"I see" Kate said, absentmindedly wondering who had such powers over UNIT. Off the top of her head, she could only think of two people, and one of them was her dad, the other a man that had been missing for fourteen years. The wasn't really much else to be saif on the matter, so the conversation slowly died down.   
  
"So, how come you've started working at UNIT?" Osgood asked after a little while, and Kate shrugged noncommittally.   
  
"My dad's a soldier." She replied. Simple and honest to God, not risking her having to stretch her cover story in order to explain herself.   
  
"Mine too. Or well, not my dad, but my uncle. He worked for UNIT in the 70s." Osgood  smiled proudly, obviously feeling a sense of pride over her heritage and her family’s connections with UNIT.    
  
"That's nice." Kate said, feeling a bit  awkward as she risked a glance to her right, looking at the girl. She still couldn’t shake the fact that she was talking to a girl the same age as her son. It felt awkward, and Kate didn’t know what to do or say to change it.   
  
Finally, she was relieved as they seemed to arrive at their destination. Osgood stopped  in front of one of the doors lining the corridor, pausing a little before pushing it open. It opened slowly, tiredly, a loud, creaking noise giving away its state of disuse. "Kate Stewart is here sir!" The little girl yelled into the room, not waiting for an answer as she  gestured for Kate to enter.   
  
Hesitantly, Kate did as she was asked.  She stepped onto the room, trying to be as quiet as possible in case there was anything happening inside that she be interrupting.   
  
It was an old school science lab. The walls were painted in neutral colours and on the tables, there were still dusty scientific equipment from the 70s standing around. Extra chairs had been brought in and placed in a corner of the room that seemed to have been suspiciously empty by design. At least a doussin or so soldiers and a few senior officers crowded the room, filling out the extra chairs and then some.   
  
The focus of everyone's attention, however, was not the blackboard that had been wheeled into the room. It was a man, sitting on a blue plastic chair in the middle of the crowd. His hair closest resembled a blonde afro and he was draped in a coat that looked as though it had been sewn from a rainbow. 

 

“Ah there you are. Doctor Smith, this is Kate Stewart. She’s a new recruit.” One of the senior officers, the one who’d interviewed Kate for the job, smiled. She was addressing the rainbow man, who immediately sat up straight in his chair.

 

“Kate Stewart?” He asked, surveying her with his eyes, drawing some kind of conclusion from her appearance. Then he scoffed, shaking his head. “Surely not.” He protested. “More like Le…” 

 

“No.” Kate interrupted the man. She had to, because she realized that he was seeing straight through her. He knew who she was and he was just about to ruin it all if she didn’t stop him. She hadn’t gone through all the trouble of hiding who her father actually was just to have a clown dressed in a Rainbow exposing her.

 

Their eyes met, and Kate could see his surprise. He hadn't meant for her to see him, to meet him there of all places, and as she looked him in the eyes she suddenly knew why.

 

The  _ Rainbow man  _ had been missing for ten years. Not even Kate’s father, the man who’d met them all, had seen him in a long time. He had just been  _ gone _ , and now he was  _ back _ , popping up at UNIT as though nothing happened.

 

Finally, the rainbow man looked away from Kate, coughing awkwardly. “No. Perhaps not. Um…” He looked embarrassed and confused and Kate didn’t know if she should feel ashamed or proud to have reduced him to such a state.

 

“Doctor, I think we should go.” An American accented voice suddenly cut into the conversation, and a girl sitting in the left corner stood up. She was brown haired and dressed in a skimpy, 80s style dress. Among all the military clad recruits, she stood out like a sore thumb, and it was quite clear who had brought her there.

 

“Yes, yes I believe so Peri.” The Doctor jumped out of the chair, landing gracefully on his feet. “Ladies, gentlemen, Kate. Pleasure meeting you all, but now I got to go.” With a bow, he and skimpy girl was off out the door, leaving the rest of the crowd sitting there and blinking in confusion.

Another few minutes passed, and then suddenly everyone is looking around them, acting as though they had never seen the room before.  no one seemed to get any wiser. Not even Kate herself was quite sure what she had been doing after she arrived.

 

All she could think of, was a rainbow.

 

* * *

 

“Doctor, who was that? What happened?” Peri asked, trying to keep her anxiety at bay. She didn’t like when The Doctor started acting all weird like that.

 

“Kate Stewart. Her father’s an old friend of mine but…” The Doctor paused, frowning.

 

“But what? Tell me, Doctor!” Peri was absolutely frustrated. The only thing she hated more than The Doctor acting funny was The Doctor refusing to explain why they were acting funny.

 

“But it was way too early for her. She wasn’t supposed to meet me.” He shook his head expressively. “A temporal collision caused by two Timelines crossing prematurely. No one in there is going to remember a thing.”

 

“What about us? I remember.” Peri still felt a bit confused, but at least The Doctor  _ had  _ explained.

  
“We, would do best in disappearing from here.” The Doctor said, suddenly scratching his neck. It itched, the overflowing time frames from the temporal collision settling there like an annoying rash.    
  
As they walked away, Peri glanced over her shoulder, smiling. “It’s never easy meeting The Doctor for the first time.”   



End file.
